One of Brain Support Network’s missions is to assist families with brain donation. In the 200 or so brain donations we’ve helped with thus far, we’ve seen a few cases where the donor during life was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia but, upon brain donation, the confirmed diagnosis is posterior cortical atrophy (PCA). Most people with PCA suffer from visual hallucinations or severe visual disturbances.
There is some dispute in the dementia community if PCA is a variant of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) or whether it’s a separate disease. The brain pathology is very similar; both typical AD and PCA have neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques. But the distribution of this pathology differs in the brain between PCA and AD. In PCA, the pathology is in the back part of the cortex, where visual processing takes place.
The Alzheimer’s Association website has a good, short overview of PCA. See:
www.alz.org/dementia/posterior-cortical-atrophy.asp
I’ve copied a short excerpt below.
Robin
________________________
From Alzheimer’s Association website
About Posterior Cortical Atrophy
Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) refers to gradual and progressive degeneration of the outer layer of the brain (the cortex) in the part of the brain located in the back of the head (posterior). It is not known whether PCA is a unique disease or a possible variant form of Alzheimer’s disease. In many people with PCA, the affected part of the brain shows amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, similar to the changes that occur in Alzheimer’s disease but in a different part of the brain. In other people with PCA, however, the brain changes resemble other diseases such as Lewy body dementia or a form of Creutzfeld-Jacob disease. Most cases of Alzheimer’s disease occur in people age 65 or older, whereas the onset of PCA commonly occurs between ages 50 and 65.